Leslie and Owen Ford were already at my house when Ken pulled us into the driveway. We sat there for a moment not wanting to go in and face another set of parents.

"What if I show them the photos, do you think it will soften their mood?" I ask trying to think of a way to break the ice.

"Look, my dad, he's going to be…well intense," Ken tells me trying to prepare me. I almost think he's more afraid of his father's reaction than my family's.

"Because of Thea?" I ask him and he nods. "I want you to feel secure about your place in her life," I tell him quietly.

"I know, but he's just going to throw out demands and we don't have to listen to them," Ken told me. "We can figure this out on our own?" I only nod my head before unbuckling my seatbelt.

They were in the living having coffee when we came through the door. The four of them looked up at us.

"Rilla darling," Leslie said getting up to greet me. Hugging and kissing my cheek, "Let me look at you!" She asked stepping back, frowning at my large hoodie that covered everything that there was to see I had thrown on after the appointment.

Leslie looked like I remembered her as, with long pale blonde hair that was hung down past her shoulders. She was in her 50's still only looked to be much younger. She wasn't tall and kept a relatively slim figure. Owen Ford was the opposite of his wife. Tall in his polo shirt and casual dress pants, with more salt than pepper running through his hair. He was still a striking man to look at with defined features, ones that intrigued me as a child. Ken, along with the vague memories I had a Thea coming on vacation to the island once or twice before looked like him a fair bit. While his older sister Persis looked much like Leslie her mother.

I stood for a moment before I went over and sat down in one of the vacant love seats, pulling my feet up and under me as I sit. Ken sits down next to me and I pull myself more into a ball.

"How was the appointment?" My father asks first.

"Same as usual," I tell him. Not wanting to tell them the news. "Everything thing looks good, on track," I told him.

"Do you have any pictures?" Leslie asked me trying to not appear too excited at the prospect of a grandchild, but you could tell that despite the circumstances she was.

I nod my head and unball myself before reaching for my purse to dig out the envelope they gave me and passed them along.

"What are your plans?" Owen speaks up looking at me.

"What do you mean?" I ask him unsure of what he was asking me.

"Dad, do we have to have an interrogation right off the bat? Do we need to figure everything out right now?" Ken said after me, almost growling his answer.

"The fast things are set, the easier expectations are to manage. Talk is fine and dandy until emotions get in the way you find yourself in a situation you didn't think would happen. A solid custody and visitation agreement will work both in your favour. You can rest easy about not having to worry, and Rilla can know she can rely on you. Of course, there are other factors, child support and where everyone will live."

"All we know is that we'll do our best that we can for her," I speak up quietly "I think that is the best we can do isn't it?"

"Which is perfectly acceptable right now," Leslie says to me while giving her husband a look. Telling him to cool it, and not get ahead of the situation.

"Did you say her?" My mother speaks up.

"Uhh, yeah," I shrugged. "Apparently it's a girl," I say simply as if it doesn't affect how I feel about it. I watch my mom take one of the photos that Leslie hands her.

Why is it whenever talking to other people, she almost appears at ease? Possibly even eager to meet her grandchild, yet when it comes to actually talk to me about the baby it like she has her walls up?

"I got to hear the heartbeat," Ken chipped in with a big smile. "I don't think I will ever forget that sound."

"Well, if you make up an Amazon, or BabiesRUs registry sends it along," Leslie told me. "With the date of your baby shower."

"Aunt Marilla is apparently planning one, but I don't know much about it, really I don't look forward to it. I don't want to spend an afternoon that will just be full of thinly veiled pity by the way of gifts when I know I let everyone down." I say rather quietly with bitterness running through my voice.

"Rilla!" My mother chides me, even though I know she feels the same way. "No one feels that way, yes this was all a shock and your father and I didn't have the best reactions but we are trying our best. Also, you don't necessarily allow us many graces for us to try and make things right." She tells me.

"I don't even know why there needs to be a discussion. Ken and I will figure things out for ourselves, but right now it's all too fresh and fucked up to figure out anything. We obviously didn't mean for this to happen. If we realized just who we were to each other I am sure that he would drop me like a hot potato and probably called someone to pick me up. However, that didn't happen obviously. Since here we are and before you go off thinking Ken robbed the cradle, he didn't. Some dickhead I dated last spring did that." I tell them, mostly looking at Ken's parents. "I'm sorry he had to find out as he did, but really I did try to tell him earlier."

"Okay, okay let's just all calm down," my father steps in. "Rilla is right, while we are all concerned. We can't make choices for them, they must learn to figure out how to co-parents for themselves. It's not like we are expecting them to get married this isn't 1917, today isn't even thirty-two years ago." He says looking at mom.

Mom and dad got married because of Joy, it had been the thing to do back then after all. It was an afternoon affair at the courthouse when mom turned eighteen, six months pregnant with Joy. They didn't have a proper wedding until Mom told him she was pregnant with Jem. She just finished her first year of teaching, they had thrown a backyard wedding. Joy being the flower girl and gracing all the photos that they had hanging up on the wall.

"However I do agree that a custody agreement will be needed for practicality's sake. But we have twenty-some weeks to discuss and figure out a schedule that is fair but works best for the baby. Of course, Rilla will reside here until she is eighteen, and remain in school so she can graduate."

I could tell Owen didn't like that answer but nodded reluctantly. I found it so strange the one person who seemed to be on my side was my father. It was backwards, how our parents reacted to the news. Leslie was excited, while my mother struggled. Dad was somewhat on my side when it came to decisions, where Owen wanted everything hammered out right away.

"I need to lie down," I say out loud the pressure of today becoming all too much. Ken looks between me and his parents. Wanting to escape with me, but at the same time, he had no way to escape. I sigh and motion to him to follow me, which he does with a grateful look on his face.

We leave my door open as he sits in my desk chair and I lay across my bed. We can hear our parents discuss the situation, all the what-ifs and situations that needed to be dealt with. Parts of us are relieved that they both agreed that the whole 'do the right thing' was archaic. Still, it felt very much like being in a flashback episode of Gilmore girls as they talked it out.

"Are you all right?" He asked as I rubbed my stomach.

"I'm fine, just stretching skin, muscles, organs being displaced," I tell him. I watch him raise his eyebrows as he looks at the pinned ultrasound photos on my corkboard above my small desk. He takes one of the ones he in hand somehow from downstairs and pins it up on my collage.

"So do you read?" He asked trying to make conversation.

"Do I look like I read?" I asked giving him a look, motioning to the lack of books I had in my room but had a teasing smile on my face.

He laughs softly and shook his head. "Walter always said that you hated English class."

"Because the books they make us read are boring. I have read The Lord of the Rings though, which he approves of, of course. Then there is the famous Harry Potter, the Hunger Games, but nothing he calls real substance." I explain. "I think my favourite was always the secret garden as a child," I tell him.

"I read most of the Lemony Snicket books," he replies. " I liked the Percy Jackson books they have a good grasp on Greek Mythology." He says. "Most of what I read are history books now."

"I would have never guessed," I said. "You were a history major with Walter."

"Fair enough," He says.

"I never noticed before," I say out loud, my voice oddly small.

"Never noticed what before?" He looks over at me confused.

"Your parents," I say quietly. "Your dad he's older than your mom?"

I watch him laugh under his breath and run his hand through his hair.

"Yeah, I guess I sometimes forget about that. I don't notice it as much as other people do these days," Ken says as he looks at the other photos on my walls. Joy and I out at the beach, dance photos, pictures of Walter and I dress up as Rocky Horror characters. Old selfies and Christmas photos, a life I had before all of this mess. A life he never saw me have, where I was smiling happily at cameras, where my eyes sparkled.

"Dad is eleven years older than mom, when they met she was teaching her first year. She was friends with your mother, actually, it's how they all knew each other. "Ken started the story. "Dad was already working for the CBC and was doing some show on something or another. I was told once that she came onto set introducing herself as a media studies teacher and she really wanted to give her students a chance to see a film set. Dad told me once that he was thirty-four when suddenly this freshly graduated teacher was up in his personal space and it intrigued him. He brought her over to set management and they managed to work out a day the students could come and see things in action." Ken stopped for a moment with a shake of his head.

"A few days later she found him eating dinner alone in a restaurant down at the harbour. She thanked him for being nice to the kids. He invited her to sit with him and eat her dinner she was getting as take out. Apparently, it caused an uproar here, she had been in a relationship previously. Her fiancé died in a motorcycle accident barely a year before. She doesn't talk about it much, but I get the sense he wasn't the best guy out there but the two families were still up in arms when she and dad spent time together as he filmed."

"It seems like it was very much a whirlwind romance?" I say thinking over my words carefully.

"They did long distance and she finished out her school year contract, she had just turned twenty-three when she met him in 1990. She learned about Thea right off the bat and she just didn't think much about it. She moved out to Toronto to be with him when she twenty-four years old, and they just decided that Christmas to get married. She applied for teaching jobs and media jobs. She didn't tell the CBC who she was when she applied but with a degree in mixed media, they hired her. They had kept their relationship under wraps for the most part. Of course, when mom got pregnant with Persis and things came out about their relationship. Dad was uncertain about his job for a while, but they were already married when she started working there and she didn't work with him of course." Ken went on further. "I suppose the older I got the more I questioned the story, but it was the early 90's and while there was some talk. It was never a huge thing."

"But you said you remember Thea being angry?" I asked trying to piece together his family's story. Thea would be almost 40 if he is in his 60s?

"Dad originally kept moms age rather quiet around Thea, the few times they met it was never spoken about. The last thing he wanted was her mother to find out and of course, she did anyway. Thea suddenly thought it was gross that her stepmother was only twelve years older than her. Persis arriving didn't help much either. She was angry and jealous for a while, thinking Dad replaced her with Persis. Ken stopped for a moment looking over at me. "Eventually she realized that mom only wanted to be her friend, and Persis and I were just cool little people and that Dad loved us all the same. Things got better over the years, she and Dad still have issues here and there but she tries."

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't you lived here for a while? I swear I remember you living here" I say more confused than before.

"We spent summers with Mom's family, we did spend a few years out here as a family. Dad took a sabbatical for health reasons at one point and we moved out here. It's how Walter and I really got to be friends." He said ended it in a rather sad tone.

I only nod my head to him as I pick at my blanket, still feeling guilty that this whole situation ruined their relationship.

"Saying all that and putting everything to side about our night. Just because it worked out for my parents," Ken stated.

I shake my head, looking at him with wide eyes. "You don't have to explain, The 90s were a different time and circumstances are different. I'm under no illusion, it would make things weirder than they are. I didn't ask about your parents because I thought," I tell him hurriedly.

"So friends for now?" Ken said with a smile that flips my stomach. I smile wryly and nod my head. A part of me knowing that this was just a foolish thought to be just friends as Walter's words still run through my head. It also didn't help that his smile already sent me into a pile of mush. "Good," he says with a nod of his head. Pleased that we agreed that anything else would be foolish right now.

The Fords stayed for a few days to help Ken who had managed to set up an apartment viewing from himself. He was leaving soon to go back, he was debating on leaving his car and flying back or just do the drive twice over. At the end of the day he needed more than a duffle bag, he needed things for his apartment. It was still awkward between us but things were settling down. He spent most of his time with me when I wasn't working or at school.

We were in some awkward stage of knowing each other, but not truly knowing each other. Family acquaintances where we heard anecdotes of each other all our lives through our mothers and brothers. Still, we knew very little about each other, sometimes I look over at him as we watch tv, wanting to escape to my room. Wanting to be alone, how does one tell another person that they need some personal space?

Today for a change he wasn't there when I finished school which prompted Olivia's mom to give me a lift home. The house was oddly quiet. Walter had done back to Halifax, though he would be back for Christmas. So it was just Shirley and me left in the house and since the school was still until next week. Of course, as soon as the Twins came home it is busier.

I drop my school bag in the kitchen and hear the tv in the basement. I change out of my uniform and lay on my bed for a moment checking my phone. I lay there in the quiet, my hand rubbing over my bump methodically. It still feels strange, it might always feel strange though I could never tell if it was the baby moving around or if it was just gas or food digesting.

"How was school today?" Mom asks as she sees me while she was holding a basket of laundry.

"It was fine," I reply and it was. At least some of the talk had died down. "I had a test in history, I think I did all right," I tell her looking up at my ceiling.

"That's good to hear," She smiles at me. "I thought you were working tonight?"

I shook my head. "Tessa decided to close shop earlier this morning because dance is on break," I tell her. "I still work Wednesday and Saturday though."

Mom nods her head. "How have you been feeling?" She asks cautiously.

"All right I suppose," I tell her honestly. She was about to leave when I decided to speak up. "What it is like when you first feel it move?" I ask her bravely.

"Well, I think the easiest explanation I was given when I was having Joy that it was like a fluttering butterfly. Like something dancing across you but inside you." Mom answers with an odd look on her face. "Why? Do you think?"

"Probably just gas," I say shaking my head, she almost looks let down. "Joy wanted to know if we wanted to come shopping with her this weekend?" Mom says. "I thought we could start looking around for some ideas, possibly get you some clothing? We can go out on Sunday, maybe catch a movie at the same time?"

I look at her in surprise. "That would be nice," I say quietly. Mom nods her head with a small smile and continues putting away laundry.

I lay there for another few minutes before I decide to get up and go see what Shirley and Wynnie were up to. I find them curled up on the couch, watching some show set in medieval something or another. I sit down quietly on the next couch. Wynnie's dark brown hair was pushed back with the same glittery cat ears I had seen Shirley wear previously and she wearing a pair of overalls and what appeared to be a comic books shirt underneath it.

"I don't understand any of this," I say shaking my head after twenty minutes.

"It's pirates," Shirley looked at me. "What's there to understand? You like Pirates of the Caribbean. Black Sails is just grittier," Shirley explained looking at his girlfriend.

"We can watch something else?" Wynnie tells me. "We've already seen this after all," she looks to Shirley wanting him to know she didn't care if he changed it.

I shake my head. "It's fine, I'll manage, I don't think I've to watch anything in a particular order in a long while. So make no difference to me." I say to her. I remember Shirley said that she thought I didn't like her and didn't want her to think that. I readjust myself on the couch, grimacing and sighing when I finally got comfortable.

"Are you all right?" Shirley asks me concerned.

"I'm fine, really I am." I give him small smile.

"No Ken today?" He asks me.

"He was spending the day with his parents before they leave and I think he was viewing an apartment today as well," I tell my brother. I don't tell Shirley how it rather nice to be on my own today. Not that I was ever truly alone, but it felt nice just to be away from him even for a few hours. "Plus I thought you wanted to hurt him?"

"He seems rather remorseful about it," Shirley shrugged. "Though who knows maybe I'm just waiting for him to have his guard down."

I watch Wynnie shake her head. "I'll make sure he behaves himself."

"What do you see in my brother?" I blurt out before blushing.

Wynnie laughs, and it is a pretty laugh. "He's sweet and we just have a lot in common." She replies looking up at him. I feel my phone buzz and I look down at it.

'Mom wants to know if you want to come out for dinner with us?'

I sigh and put my phone down.

Shirley raises an eyebrow at me.

"The Fords want to have dinner with me tonight," I explain.

"Are you going to go?" Shirley asks.

"I don't know, I suppose I should, they are just trying to be nice." I sigh. "I guess I'll go ask if it's all right with Mom." I curl myself and stand up, stretching as I did. "Have to pee anyway, so was going to get up anyway."

I find myself sitting in a restaurant that I didn't even know existed. I always felt horribly underdressed in my leggings and the one dress that I still manage to fit into right now. Picking at the bits of what was my salad as they all talk around me.

"I heard you were out in Winnipeg this summer," Leslie says to me as dessert was being served.

"I was at a summer intensive," I nod my head speaking quickly. "I got into the National one as well, but the dates for Winnipeg worked better."

"Your mother always spoke so highly of your dancing," Leslie said smiling.

"What do you plan to do when you graduate?" Owen speaks to me and I look over to Ken who just smiles at me.

"I wanted to be a dancer," I tell him nibbling on the piece of cake that appeared in front of me. "So I'm not exactly sure yet. I'm a solid 70's student, and I don't like science. I don't even really like reading. I suppose I'm okay at drama and music but that's not much for a career one day."

"Even most dancers have a fallback career," Owen tells me. "I've interviewed the national ballet quite a few times over the years, from faculty to dancers. They are exceptional talent beyond dance itself."

"Well, when I figure it out, I'm sure my parents will be ecstatic," I say setting down my fork. "Excuse me, the ladies' room is calling me," I say standing up.

"Of course, even I remember how it was," Leslie smiles at me. My stomach was in rambles as I made my way to the back of the restaurant. Everything hit my senses as soon as I enter the place, whatever they were cooking. Whatever sort of air freshener they used made my head pound and the smell of fish made my stomach flick.

I find myself losing my dinner, sitting on the floor of the stall. I know I've been gone too long as I flush the toilet, wash my hands and rinse out my mouth. Please let this night be over soon?

Ken seems to understand as I come back to the table.

"I should get Rilla back home, it's getting late and I know she said had a few things to do," He says to his parents. A part of me thankful he didn't say homework while out in public.

"Of course," Leslie says standing up and pulling me into a hug. "Please keep in touch, I'm always around."

I nod my head and turn to Ken's father. "If you need anything just let us know," He settles with for a goodbye.

I nod my head and let Ken lead me out of the restaurant where I breathe in the cold air by taking in deep breathes.

"Are you all right?" He asks as he opens the door for me.

"Too much perfume and too much fish smell," I said with a frown.

"So I got the call today that I got the two-bedroom," he said awkwardly as he opened the car door for me. "I know she'll be with you most of the time, but once she's old enough," he stumbled over his words.

"I get it," I say quietly as I slide into the car. "We'll figure things out?" I tell him. "Though really I am clueless as you are in this."

"At least we're not alone then?" Ken says back to me as turns a corner.

"What do you at museums?" I ask him. "What sort of jobs can you do?" I clarify.

"The Charlottetown Museum is a bunch in one. If I can land it I will be speaking about the history of the Island, helping archive donations or setting up exhibits that come and go." He explains.

I nod my head. "Are they hard to get into?" I asked curiously. I had never even applied for a job. I just worked at the dance shop out of pure luck.

"It depends, the fact there is an opening is a chance enough. I know my history, and while archaeology was more of my passion. I am a history major so it all works together." He says. "If it doesn't, then I find something else maybe go back to school and become a history teacher."

I wiggle in my seat, trying to get comfortable, my nose was running as I reached for a napkin in the glove department. It happened so randomly, I sit up straight with a stunned look on my face.

"What's wrong?" Ken asked, watching me in the corner of his eye.

"I think she moved?" I say, I wait for a quiet moment before I poke the area where I had felt the sensation. I feel it once more, a strange fluttering across my stomach and for the first in a long time I let myself smile, truly smile. "Give me your hand," I tell him.

"Let me pull over," he says and does it the first chance he can, I take his hand and I place it over the spot. "Can you feel anything?"

It takes him a moment to shake his head. "I think it still too early for that." He says clearing his thought. A brief look of disappointment in his eyes.

We sit for a moment with the hazard lights on, the moon high up in the sky. Tomorrow he would be driving back home and I would be here.

"I'll back few days after Christmas most likely, before New Years' if it all goes to plan. I should be able to get the keys to move in when I come back. It's in one of those apartment buildings over on Main St. Close by the bridge. That way I can get to wherever I end up working rather easily."

"Those are nice places," I say knowing them as I pass them almost every day when I went to work or dance."

"Dad's helping so I can pay the rental deposit and rent until I can find a job. I still have a bit saved that the trip didn't use up. I think it will be fine, I have some experience in various museums so I think I have a good chance?" He was so sure of himself that I believed him. "Persis and her boyfriend Yosuke will be home and might drive out here with me. She wants to see everyone and wants to show her boyfriend the Island. Apparently, our famous novel is really popular out in Japan and wants to see it, his mother wants photos of the island if he can, despite it being winter."

I nod my head following along. Seeing Persis would be nice, she had always been nice.

"I'll call and text you," he says as he pulls the car back onto the road. "I'm not going to disappear on you, this time around, I promise you that."

I look up at him, trying to commit his face to memory in a way at this moment. In the end, his reassurance does calm some nerves I didn't know I had about him going back to Toronto. "I'd like that," I tell him with a shaky smile.

I hope everyone had a good week! Thank you all for the lovely comments over the past week.

I hope

Tina